Page 354 of Black Reign

He catches me around the waist before I can move away.

“Very unfortunate,” he murmurs, dragging me back against him.

“You're horrible.”

“You married me anyway.”

“Temporary lapse in judgment.”

His mouth finds the side of my neck.

My argument dies.

He knows it too.

I feel the smile against my skin.

“Don't.”

“Don't what?”

“Look pleased with yourself.”

“I can't see my own face.”

“I can feel it.”

Another kiss beneath my ear.

My fingers tighten in his hair.

There are moments when the years online disappear completely.

Then there are moments like this, when every one of them seems to exist inside the touch.

Every time Ghost told me what he would do if he ever caught me.

Every time I told him he never would.

Every photograph.

Every challenge.

Every midnight conversation that wandered too close to desire and then retreated behind jokes.

None of it was imaginary.

It was waiting.

For hands.

For mouths.

For us.

Xavier lowers the blanket into the grass.

I look at it.